Ki Tavó 5776 - English

Rabbi Gustavo Kraselnik

Congregacion Kol Shearith Israel

The Torah contains two harsh passages known as Tochachot (reproof or admonition).  The first one appears in Parashat Bechukotai, at the end of Vayikra (Leviticus 26:14-46) and the second one in Parashat Ki Tavo (Deut. 28:15-69).  Both passages describe a series of tremendous catastrophes that would happen if the covenant were not observed.   

The Mishnah (Meguilah 3:6) already determined that in the ritual reading of both passages, the text cannot be divided and one reader must recite it in its entirety.  In other words, the text of the Tochacha must be read as a single Aliyah.  

In an interesting Talmudic discussion about this Mishnah, the sage Abayei (Babylonian Amora from the 3rd Century) claims that the rule of not dividing the reading applies only to the Tochacha from Vayikra and not to the one in our Parashah.  

The logic in his reasoning comes from his conviction that the first one is much more severe than the second one for two reasons.  In the first place, the passage from Vayikra references a plural (therefore, the reprimand will reach the entire people).  In the second place, the admonishment was given by God himself.  On the contrary, the Tochacha from Devarim, as the rest of the book, is assumed to have been dictated by Moses.  

However, this Talmudic vision suffers an interesting twist during the age of the Rishonim (Rabbi lawmakers from the 11th to the 16th Century).  There, the Tochacha from Devarim is perceived as graver because it is in singular form.  It would seem that the person going up to the Torah could be the recipient of the tragedies it describes.  Also, by being written in the present tense (the ones in Vayikra are in future tense), they give a sense of imminent catastrophe.  

As proof of this new reality, we find in some of the writings of these masters an atypical scenario where people refuse the honor of being called to the Torah for the reading of the Tochacha and instead propose that it be the Shamash (the person in charge of everything related to the synagogue and of giving out the honors) who goes up to the Torah on that occasion.  

In later times, the rejection kept increasing until some people would leave the synagogue before the reading of the Tochacha and come back in once it was over, up to the point where some synagogues would cancel the reading of the Torah for Parashat Ki Tavo or Bechukotai.  

A less radical custom is for the person invited up to read the Tochacha to not recite the blessings that come before and after reading the Torah and yield the “honor” of that Aliyah to the rabbi of the congregation. 

Maybe one of the most practical lessons we can get from all of this is what Rabbi Isaac ben Moses of Vienna, author of Or Zarua (13th Century), reported his master Rabbi Yehuda Hechasid saying: “the Shamash must be very well loved by his entire congregation, otherwise when he reads the Tochacha it could be very dangerous for the one who does not care for him…”

In a more current note, the same Talmudic text I mentioned earlier reminds us that the Tochacha from Ki Tavo is read right before Rosh Hashanah; the sages explain why: “so that it ends the year and its curses.”

Thus my esteemed reader, may this year end and the new one come with renewed illusion and hope.  

Shabbat Shalom y Shanah Tovah

Gustavo